Pitt County residents and visitors now can earn T-shirts and other swag doing what many were already going to anyway — eat barbecue and drink beer.

The Greenville-Pitt Community Visitors Bureau launched its Pitt County Brew and ’Cue Trail on Tuesday, aiming to promote the area’s growing number of local craft breweries and nationally recognized barbecue joints. According to Andrew Schmidt, executive director of the bureau, the promotion already is seeing success.

Seven restaurants and four breweries are featured on the trail. Participants’ first step is to pick up a “passpork” from the Greenville-Pitt County Convention and Visitors Bureau's Visitor Center, located at 417 Cotanche Street, Suite 100, or from any of the participating restaurants and breweries.

Passpork in hand, trail travelers then have the goal of eating or drinking at each of the participating businesses to receive stamps to fill their cards. They can choose to complete their booklets for just breweries, just restaurants, or both.

Once they have filled their card for either or both categories, participants can return it to the visitor center and redeem it for prizes, as well as have their picture taken to hang on the on the Brew & ’Cue Wall of Fame. Prizes include T-shirts and pint glasses branded with the unique trail logo.

According to Schmidt, the trail already is proving to be popular. He said since the campaign launched on Monday, the bureau has already had to restock one of the participating restaurants with passporks, even though it was given almost 40 of the cards.

Schmidt said he has heard reports that people already have begun traversing the trail.

The trail promotion will last for the foreseeable future, Schmidt said, and he encouraged visitors to Greenville and longtime barbecue and brewery supporters to participate.

“Culinary tourism is a fast-growing market segment within travel and tourism Industry,” Schmidt said. “In Pitt County, we have a unique style of barbecue and a blossoming craft brewery scene and we want to share that with those that enjoy experiencing something new.

“When visitors come to take part in our Pitt County Brew and ’Cue Trail, they will not only stimulate our the local economy but have the opportunity to learn more about the transformation taking place in Greenville and Pitt County and find more reasons to visit us again in the future,” he said.